tm 

l / ' n Ft  A i?Y 

OF  THE 

Not  Less  Education, 

But 

More  of  the  Right  Sort. 


x ?; 


By  W.  A.  Candler,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


-Af  Request  of  Board  of  Education , 
M,  E,  Church , South , 


Nashville,  Tenn.: 

Printed  by  Barbee  & Smith,  Agents. 

1897. 


“ In  order  to  make  education  truly  good  and  socially  useful, 
it  must  be  fundamentally  religious.  It  is  necessary  that  it 
should  be  given  and  received  in  the  midst  of  a religious  at- 
mosphere, and  that  religious  impressions  and  religious  ob- 
servances should  penetrate  into  all  its  parts  ."—Guizot. 


Not  Less  Education,  but  More  of  the 
Right  Sort. 


Some  years  ago  the  Emperor  William  of  Germany  de- 
clared that  there  was  too  much  education  among  the 

Emperor  William  Germans. 

and  Prof.  Peck  Somewhat  to  the  same  purpose  is 
on  Too  Much  a recent  utterance  of  Prof.  Harry 
Education.  Thurston  Peck,  of  Columbia  Univer- 

sity. Writing  upon  the  defects  of  “Modern  Education,” 
he  deprecates  the  idea,  “ almost  universal  among  our  peo- 
ple, that  education  in  itself  and  for  all  human  beings  is 
a good  and  thoroughly  desirable  possession.”  Contend- 
ing that  this  idea  is  fraught  with  “ social  and  political 
peril,”  he  says:  “Education  means  ambition,  and  ambi- 
tion means  discontent.  ...  We  see  on  every  hand 
great  masses  of  men  stirred  by  a vague  dissatisfaction 
with  their  lot,  their  brains  addled  and  confused  by  doc- 
trine that  is  only  half  the  truth  and  vaguely  understood, 
yet  thoroughly  adapted  to  make  them  ripe  for  the  work 
of  the  agitator  and  the  enemy  of  public  order.  . . . 

Such  education  as  these  possess  can  never  qualify  for 
any  serious  role;  it  only  makes  for  grievous  disappoint- 
ment and  a final  heart-break.  Nor  is  there  any  moral 
safeguard  in  a limited  degree  of  education.  Quite  the 
contrary.  It  only  makes  the  naturally  criminal  person 
far  more  dangerous,  converting  the  potential  sneak-thief 
into  the  actual  forger  and  embezzler,  and  the  barroom 
brawler  into  the  anarchist  bomb-thrower.  Statistics 
lately  sent  to  Congress  in  a veto  message  show  the  fact 
that  in  our  prisons  the  proportion  of  the  fairly  educated 

V 


4 Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Eight  Sort . 


to  the  uneducated  is  far  larger  than  among  an  equal 
number  of  ordinary  citizens.” 

The  Kaiser  and  the  Professor  agree  that  education,  to 
be  safe  and  useful,  must  be  confined  to  the  few,  and  igno- 
rance must  rest  on  the  masses.  As  the  Romanists  be- 
lieve concerning  the  Bible  that  it  is  not  to  be  trusted  in 
the  hands  of  the  vulgar  herd,  so  these  hierarchs  of  cul- 
ture would  reserve  education  to  an  aristocracy,  lest  the 
common  people  be  blasted  and  blighted  by  too  much 
light. 

If  their  conclusions  were  sound,  it  would  still  be  of  no 
value.  It  comes  too  late.  The  common  people  of  Chris- 
tendom have  too  much  education  to  be 
content  with  less.  They  will  demand  and 
receive  more.  No  decrees  of  Kaisers  nor 
wails  of  illuminati  will  avail  to  keep  knowl- 
edge from  them.  Romanistic  views  with 
regard  to  both  education  and  religion  are  spent  forces. 
Education  may  be  a Pandora’s  box  from  which,  curiosity 
having  opened,  all  blessings  have  irrecoverably  escaped, 
hope  alone  being  left  to  men;  but  the  deed  is  done,  and, 
truth  to  speak,  the  masses  of  men  do  not  regret  the  open- 
ing of  the  box,  whatever  may  be  the  results.  Men  do 
not  care  to  live  in  a paradise  if  it  is  to  be  a “ Paradise 
of  Fools.” 

And  yet  there  is  truth  in  the  conclusion  of  the  Em- 


Kaisers  and 
Illuminati 
Can  Not 
Confine 
Knowledge. 


peror  William  and  Prof.  Peek.  A man 
or  a nation  may  have  too  much  education 
by  having  the  wrong  sort  of  education. 
Sir  Archibald  Alison,  the  author  of  the 
“ History  of  Europe  During  the  French 
Revolution,”  noting  the  increase  of  deprav- 
ity with  the  spread  of  knowledge  in  France,  said : “ It 


But  There 
Can  Be 
Excess  of 
a Certain 
Sort  of 
Education. 


Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Right  Sort . 5 

is  not  simply  knowledge,  it  is  knowledge  detached  from 
religion,  that  produces  this  fatal  result.  . . . The 

reason  of  its  corrupting  tendency  in  morals  is  evident — 
when  so  detached  it  multiplies  the  desires  and  passions 
of  the  heart  without  an  increase  to  its  regulating  prin- 
ciples; it  augments  the  attacking  forces  without  strength- 
ening the  resisting  powers,  and  thence  the  disorder  and 
license  it  spreads  through  society.  The  invariable  char- 
acteristic of  a declining  and  corrupt  state  of  society  is  a 
progressive  increase  in  the  force  of  passion  and  a pro- 
gressive decline  in  the  influence  of  duty.” 

Doubtless  throughout  the  United  States — throughout 
Christendom — during  the  century  now  nearing  its  close, 
there  has  been  too  much  education  of  the  sort  which 
“ multiplies  the  desires  and  passions  of  the  heart  with- 
Multiplied  out  an  increase  to  its  regulating  principles,” 
Desires  which  augments  the  forces  which  attack  vir- 
Need  a tue  without  strengthening  the  powers  which 

Regulating  resi8t  evil,  and  thereby  much  disorder  and 
Principle.  pcense  have  been  engendered.  Hence  the 
belief  of  many  wise  and  good  people  that  our  civili- 
zation is  marked  by  the  characteristic  feature  of  a “ de- 
clining and  corrupt  state  of  society” — “a  progressive 
increase  of  the  force  of  passion  and  progressive  decline 
in  the  influence  of  duty.”  When  were  men  more  pas- 
sionately tenacious  of  their  rights  and  more  indifferent 
to  their  duties?  When  was  the  idea  of  liberty  more 
warmly  asserted  and  the  idea  of  self-sacrifice  more  tep- 
idly accepted? 

But  the  remedy  is  not  less  knowledge,  but  nobler 
knowledge;  not  less  education,  but  a higher  kind.  A 
poultice  of  ignorance  will  not  draw  out  the  dangerous 
inflammations  which  afflict  and  imperil  the  social  system, 
1* 


6 Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Right  Sort 


even  if  the  patient  were  disposed  to  submit  to  its  ap- 
^ plication.  The  cure  will  be  found,  if  found 

Remedy  *n  Kristian  culture.  Christendom 

must  choose  between  the  education  which 
casts  down  every  high  thing  which  “ exalteth  itself 
against  the  knowledge  of  God”  and  brings  “into  cap- 
tivity every  thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,”  and 
the  education  which  imparts  simply  the  knowledge 
which  “puffeth  up”  and  which  results  in  that  anarchic 
wisdom  which  knows  not  God  and  loves  not  man.  And 
this  choice  can  not  be  long  delayed. 

Sometimes  one  fears  the  American  people  have  al- 
ready made  choice,  preferring  secular  to  Christian  learn- 
ing. 

The  common  schools,  being  institutions  of  the  state, 
are  necessarily  neutral  in  religion.  So  also  are  the  thir- 
ty-four state  universities.  * The  state  can 
not  answer  any  of  the  following  questions 
which  are  fundamental  to  our  religion:  Has 
God  made  a revelation;  and  if  so,  is  it  found 
in  the  Bible?  Who  was  Christ?  Was  the 
work  of  Martin  Luther  and  his  companions  the  work  of 
reformers  restoring  the  true  faith,  or  the  misdoings  of 
renegades  destroying  that  faith? 

Besides  the  state  schools,  there  are  many  secular  in- 
stitutions founded  by  individuals.  The  greatest  gifts  to 
colleges  and  universities  yet  made  in 
America  have  been  by  men  who  have 
preferred  to  propagate  secular  rather 
than  Christian  culture.  Witness  the 
gifts  made  and  institutions  founded 
by  such  men  as  Stephen  Girard  and  Leland  Stanford. 
Are  men  of  the  world  willing  to  put  more  money  into 


Nor  Can  Private 
Foundations 
Other  Than 
Christian. 


Questions 
the  State 
Can  Not 
Answer. 


Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Eight  Sort . 7 

their  unbeliefs  than  Christian  men  are  willing  to  put 
into  their  beliefs? 

There  is  one  cheering  sign.  If  the  Christian  colleges 
of  the  United  States  are  not  the  richest,  they  are  the 
most  numerous  and  influential.  Christian  colleges  hold 
about  seventy -five  per  cent  of  all  the  college  instructors 
and  college  students  in  the  country. 

No  Church  in  America  undertakes  to  get  along  with- 
out its  own  colleges,  except  a Cuckoo  sect  which  accom- 
plishes the  same  end  by  occupying  as  far  as  it  is  able 
institutions  originally  founded  by  other  Churches. 

The  people  called  Methodists  have  from  the  first 
Methodism  founded  schools,  and  to-day  in  the  num- 
and  Schools  ^er  ^eir  educational  institutions  they 
lead  all  other  denominations  in  the  Uni- 
ted States.  The  birth  year  of  Methodism  was  1789,  and 
in  that  year  John  Wesley  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Kingswood  school.  From  that  institution  came  Adam 
Clarke — in  himself  fruit  enough  to  justify  its  planting. 
In  1784  American  Methodism  was  organized  at  the 
Christmas  Conference  in  Baltimore,  and  at  that  Confer- 
ence steps  were  taken  to  establish  Cokesbury  College. 

The  General  Conference  of  1796  introduced  into  the 
Book  of  Discipline  “a  plan  of  education  recommended 
to  all  our  seminaries  of  learning.”  It  is 
Souc^it  in  n evident  the  schools  of  the  Church  had  so 
1796.  multiplied  during  the  twelve  years  which 

had  elapsed  from  the  projection  of  Cokes- 
bury— the  years  of  poverty  and  hardship  which  fol- 
lowed the  War  of  Revolution — as  to  require  some  uni- 
form system  or  “plan.”  The  same  General  Conference 
deprecated  “the  separation  of  the  two  greatest  orna- 
ments of  intelligent  beings:  deep  learning  and  genuine 


8 Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Right  Sort. 


The  Church 
in  This  Field 
from  Its 
Foundation. 


piety.”  Every  General  Conference  from  1796  to  1894 
has  avowed  the  educational  function  of  the  Church  and 
insisted  on  its  vigorous  exercise. 

Mr.  Wesley  and  his  followers,  in  undertaking  the  work 
of  education,  brought  no  innovation  into  the  Church  of 
God,  nor  did  they  propose  a temporary 
expedient  to  meet  the  passing  needs  of 
an  ignorant  class  from  which  they  had 
gathered  followers.  From  the  very  ear- 
liest times  the  Church  has  engaged  in 
the  work  of  education.  In  the  schools  of  the  primitive 
Church  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Fathers  saw  service. 
The  Sixth  General  Council  at  Constantinople  directed  tho 
presbyters  to  establish  schools  in  all  towns  and  villages. 

Has  the  Church  followed  a folly  through  the  centu- 
ries? Has  a work  been  undertaken  which  might  as  well 
Schools  of  have  been  left  to  other  hands?  Was  Mr. 
Wesleyan  Wesley,  whose  “genius  for  organization,” 
Methodists.  ^ has  been  said,  “was  equal  to  that  of 
Richelieu,”  laying  upon  his  poor  followers 
an  unnecessary  burden  when  he  established  the  Kings- 
wood  school?  Have  all  the  General  Conferences  for  a 
century  repeated  his  blunder  by  enjoining  upon  the 
Methodists  educational  tasks  required  by  no  necessity 
of  the  Church,  no  duty  to  the  world,  and  no  principle 
of  the  gospel?  Are  the  eight  hundred  and  seventy-five 
day-schools  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodists  in  England, 
with  all  their  colleges  and  theological  institutions,  mon- 
uments to  sectarian  bigotry  and  pride?  Are  the  sixty- 
five  Methodist  colleges  in  the  United  States,  not  to  speak 
of  our  two  hundred  Methodist  schools  for  secondary  in- 
struction, the  product  of  priestcraft  and  the  instruments 
of  partizanship? 


Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Right  Sort . 9 


Suppose  We 
Close  or  Had 
Never  Had 
Our  Schools. 


Insufficient 
Maintenance 
Is  Practical 
Abandonment. 


What  would  be  the  effect  on  our  civili- 
zation if  all  these  schools  were  closed? 
What  would  be  our  condition  to  day  if 
they  had  never  been  opened?  Let  men 
who  decry  them  consider  these  questions. 
Let  Christian  men  who  neglect  them  reflect  upon  these 
things. 

Not  to  maintain  these  schools  suitably  is  much  the 
same  as  closing  them.  If  the  schools  of  the  Church  re- 
main weak  and  poor  while  secular  in- 
stitutions are  being  strengthened  and 
enriched,  Christian  education  will  be 
first  belittled,  and  then  abandoned.  It 
is  no  good  sign  of  the  times  that  the 
Leland  Stanford  University,  with  its  scoffing  head,  is 
richer  than  all  the  Christian  colleges  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi Eiver  combined.  Thus  entrenched,  no  wonder  its 
President  rails  at  denominational  colleges  through  the 
columns  of  the  Popular  Science  Monthly , while  all  the 
hosts  of  the  secularists  rejoice  and  the  Philistines  shout 
their  applause. 

If  this  work  of  Christian  education  can  be  done  as 
well  by  any  other  agent  as  by  the  Church,  if  the  state 
Th  rh  h or  Priya^e  persons  can  do  it  as  well,  let 
Must  Face  the  come  out  of  it.  She  has  plen- 

the  Issue.  ty  to  do  that  nobody  else  can  do.  Let  her 
sell  her  educational  plants  and  put  the 
money  in  Foreign  Missions,  for  example. 

But,  if,  on  the  contrary,  no  one  can  do  the  work  of 
^Christian  education  as  well  as  the  Church,  if  no  one  can 
impart  the  spiritual  quality  to  education  by  which  alone 
it  can  be  saved  from  becoming  a malign  and  dangerous 
force,  let  the  Church  be  up  and  about  this  urgent  busi- 


10  Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Right  Sort.. 

ness.  It  is  a matter  which  can  not  wait.  The  secular- 
forces  are  not  waiting,  and  unchristian  education  means 
ruin  to  both  Church  and  State.  Yery  little  is  too  much 
of  it. 

Christian  men  must  thoroughly  equip  genuinely  Chris- 
tian institutions.  This  will  require  much  money  in  a 
country  in  which  unchristian  schools  (not  to  say  anti- 
christian)  count  their  possessions  by  millions  and  their 
incomes  by  hundreds  of  thousands. 

All  the  schools  of  the  Church  must  be  in  fact,  as  in 
name,  genuinely  Christian.  This  matter  is  too  great  and 
too  grave  to  be  trifled  with.  There  is  no  room  here  for 
shams.  The  Church  must  not  permit  any  institution 
not  genuinely  Christian  to  live  upon  its  treasury  and 
fatten  upon  its  patronage.  For  a scho'ol 

GraveaMatter.  to  wear  the  Sarb  of  the  Church  that 
it  may  secure  the  gifts  of  the  conse- 
crated is  a species  of  Simony  far  worse  than  all  sins  of 
secularism.  For  the  Church  to  allow  such  a sin  in  its 
name  is  to  approve  the  crime  of  getting  money  under 
false  pretenses,  and  wink  at  an  offense  as  profane  as  the 
gluttony  and  covetousness  of  Hophni  and  Phinehas. 
Every  one  of  our  schools  must  be  able  to  stand  up  and 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  give  a Christian’s  account  of 
itself  when  men  demand  of  it  “ What  do  you  more  than 
others  ?”  The  times  call  for  Christian  culture,  not  eccle- 
siastical establishments. 

Long  as  the  Church  has  neglected  her  duty  by  delay 
^ . . about  this  great  and  urgent  interest, 
Men  Have  in  there  is  time  yet  to  retrieve  much  that 

Their  Purses.  ^as  ^een  an<^  save  a^  that  *8  now 
imperiled.  The  great  common-school 
system  can  be  saved  from  secularism  by  pouring  through 


Not  Less  Education , but  More  of  the  Right  Sort . 11 

•all  its  veins  and  arteries  the  religious  influences  of  our 
Christian  colleges  if  we  will  only  make  these  colleges 
strong  enough.  Christian  men  have  it  in  their  power 
(in  their  purses)  to  make  our  colleges  thus  strong. 

The  young  life  of  the  republic  to-day  lies  in  the  lap 

What  the  ^kurch.  Will  she  dare  say  any 

Lord  Says  secular  agent  whatsoever:  “Take  this  child 
and  nurse  it  for  me  ? ” It  is  this  the  Lord 
says  to  her.  It  is  a high  trust.  It  can  not  be  delegated 
to  another  without  disobedience  to  her  King. 


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